Stand On Zanzibar – They don’t make them like this anymore

I’m currently reading Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, and I’m quite impressed. In my opinion they don’t make Science Fiction like this anymore. Publishers would reject this kind of avant-garde writing straight out. Why? Well, if one were to follow all the pedantic rules editors blindly follow these days, it breaks them all. And I mean all of them!

But that is exactly why I love this book. It’s true science fiction, and tries to portray a world gone haywire with overpopulation. Of course no one is up in arms over such a topic these days, but one has to awed by Brunner’s attempt to challenge and edify the readers of his time.

2 responses to “Stand On Zanzibar – They don’t make them like this anymore”

The dire predictions did not come true, but Bruner’s work is not diminished by that. For some reason, I associate the book with James Blish’s “Cities in Flight,” which suggests a rather different solution. Probably, though, because I read them both around the same time, some 40 years ago. I know. I took a deep breath when I figured that out.
-Michael
The Fiction Side: The Storyteller http://mgkizzia.wordpress.com/
The Non-Fiction Side: Word & Spirit http://michaelkizzia.wordpress.com/

I agree that dire predictions of overpopulation did not come true for western countries. But what about China? For those who lived under the One-Child policy, I think this book would stir up a lot of emotions.

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Perhaps the only 'true' SF film ever made: Things to Come (1936) is a British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William Cameron Menzies. The screenplay was written by H. G. Wells and is a loose adaptation of his own 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come and his 1931 non-fiction work, The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind.